Deputy County Health Officer Dr. Thomas Warne will provide a COVID-19 update at today's meeting.
Following Dr. Warne's remarks, we will allow for Public Comment and additional questions specific to the current Health Order, attached, other guidance documents, also attached, and Timeline.
Under the State's new Blueprint for a Safer Economy, every county is assigned to a tier by the State based on its test positivity and adjusted case rate (see Tier chart at the end of this section). The State reviews data weekly and tiers are updated on Tuesdays. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. Contra Costa County advanced from the Purple (most restrictive) Tier to the Red Tier on September 29, 2020. For Contra Costa County to move down to the next tier (moderate/orange), daily new cases (per 100k) must be between 1-3.9 and positive tests must be between 2-4.9%. If a county’s case rate and positivity rate fall into different tiers, the county remains in the stricter tier. Click to learn more about tier assignments and metric details.
New Equity Provision
In an effort to reduce COVID-19 transmission across all of California’s communities, beginning October 6, 2020, Contra Costa County will need to meet a health equity metric in order to further open its economy and ensure test positivity rates in disadvantaged neighborhoods don’t fall significantly behind the overall county test positivity rate. Generally, to advance to the next less restrictive tier in the state’s COVID-19 Tier Framework, a county, depending on its size, will need to meet an equity metric and/or show plans for targeted investments to eliminate neighborhood disparities in levels of COVID-19 transmission. Those investments can include spending on augmenting testing, disease investigation, contact tracing, isolation/quarantine support, and education and outreach efforts for workers.
Counties can’t go backwards into more restrictive tiers solely because of the equity metric, but they will remain in a holding pattern and must submit a plan explaining how they’ll increase testing and quarantine resources in hard-hit neighborhoods. Contra Costa County has opened free COVID testing sites in Richmond and added a weekend testing at a site in Bay Point, two cities with neighborhoods that rank low within the county’s Healthy Places index.
Schools and Distance Learning
Thus far, none of the Contra Costa County school districts have moved to reopen. Some are planning on bringing students on campus for assessments and then later in small groups. Others are waiting until until the County advances out of Red Tier and into the Orange Tier. 27 elementary school waivers have been approved.
Attached are samples of recent local school district news and planning efforts around distance learning and eventual reopening strategies.
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